Emancipation Proclamation
Discusses the reasons for Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and its impact on the institution of slavery and on the course of the Civil War.
Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad
Focuses on the work of Harriet Tubman as an abolitionist and an advocate for women's rights, her escape from slavery, her work on the Underground Railroad, her role in the Civil War, and other related topics.
Slave Narratives and the Writings of Freedmen
Provides an introduction to slavery, discussing what life was like for slaves, and examines slave narratives written by slaves who escaped or bought their way to freedom.
Sojourner Truth: Speaking Up For Freedom
Presents a biography of African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist Sojourner Truth, who was regarded as one of the most persuasive speakers of her time, covering her birth into slavery, upbringing, attainment of freedom, and impact on other leaders.
Freedom Summer, 1964
Describes the events surrounding the Freedom Summer Project in 1964, when volunteers from northern states traveled to Mississippi to attempt to prove to local politicians that African Americans wanted voting rights and to encourage African Americans to make that desire known.
Books: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation. Anderson.
Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.
Bud, Not Buddy. Curtis. Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Chains. Anderson. After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War.
Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Thriple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers. Stone. Tells the story of America's first black paratroopers during World War II.
Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue. Lester. Presents an historical fiction written in first-person format that follows Emma, the slave of Pierce Butler, through a series of events in her life as her master hosts the largest slave auction in American history in Savannah, Georgia in 1859 in order to pay off his mounting gambling debts
Flygirl. Smith. During World War II, a light-skinned African American girl "passes" for white in order to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots.
Forge. Anderson. Curzon, having matured from boy to man over the course of the winter with the army at Valley Forge, worries that someone will learn he is a runaway slave passing for free, and tries to figure out the meaning of his friendship with Isabel.
Freedom Walkers: The story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Freedman. Presents the story of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and the major persons and events that contributed to the year-long struggle for equal rights on Montgomery's city buses.
Getting away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case. Crowe. Presents a true account of the murder of fourteen-year-old, Emmett Till, in Mississippi, in 1955.
The Help. Stockett. Skeeter returns home to Mississippi from college in 1962 and begins to write stories about the African-American women that are found working in white households, which includes Aibileen, who grieves for the loss of her son while caring for her seventeenth white child, and Minny, Aibileen's sassy friend, the hired cook for a secretive woman who is new to town
The Land. Taylor. Paul-Edward, the son of a part-Indian, part-African slave mother and a White plantation owner father, finds himself caught between the two worlds of his parents as he pursues his dream of owning land in the aftermath of the Civil War.
The Lions of Little Rock. Levine. Marlee develops a strong friendship with Liz, the new girl in school, but when Liz suddenly stops attending school and Marlee hears a rumor that her friend is actually an African American girl passing herself off as white, the two young girls must decide whether their friendship is worth taking on integration and the dangers it could bring to their families.
Mississippi Bridge. Taylor. During a heavy rainstorm in 1930s rural Mississippi, white boy sees a bus driver order all the black passengers off a crowded bus to make room for late-arriving white passengers and then set off across the raging Rosa Lee River.
Mississippi Trial, 1955. Crowe. In Mississippi in 1955, a teen finds himself at odds with his grandfather over issues surrounding the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till, an African-American from Chicago.
New Boy. Houston. As a new sophomore at an exclusive boarding school in the 1950s, Rob Garrett, a young black man, is witness to the persecution of other students and wonders about the growing civil rights movement back home in Virginia.
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights. Sheinkin. Describes the fifty black sailors who refused to work in unsafe and unfair conditions after an explosion in Port Chicago killed 320 servicemen, and how the incident influenced civil rights.
The Road to Memphis. Taylor. Sadistically teased by two white boys in 1940's rural Mississippi, a black youth severely injures one of the boys with a tire iron and enlists Cassie's help in trying to flee the state.
The Rock and the River. Magoon. In 1968 Chicago, Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African-Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Taylor. An African-American family living in the South during the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children don't understand.
Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till. Wright. Simeon Wright, the cousin of Emmett Till, an African-American teen who was beaten and killed in 1955 for whistling at a white woman reveals details about the night Emmett was kidnapped, and reflects on how the crime and trial affected his family and the community.
Stella by Starlight. Draper. When a burning cross set by the Klan causes panic and fear in 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, Stella must face prejudice and find the strength to demand change in her segregated town.
A Summer of Kings. Nolan. Over the course of the summer of 1963, Esther Young discovers the passion within her when King-Roy Johnson, accused of murdering a white man in Alabama, comes to live with her family.
A Thousand Never Evers. Burg. As the civil rights movement in the South gains momentum in 1963 and violence against African-Americans intensifies, residents of the small town of Kuckachoo, Mississippi, including Addie Ann Pickett, begin their own courageous struggle for racial justice.
To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee. "Scout" Finch tells of life in a small Alabama town where her father is a lawyer.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963. Curtis. The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Witness. Hesse. A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.
Yankee Girl.** Rodman. When her FBI-agent father is transferred to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1964, Alice wants to be popular but also wants to reach out to the one black girl in her class in a newly-integrated school.
E-Books (log-in using Active Directory log-in):
If direct link doesn't work go to Albion Online Catalog and search for the title.Emancipation Proclamation
Discusses the reasons for Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and its impact on the institution of slavery and on the course of the Civil War.
Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison: A Partnership for Abolition
A biography of Frederick Douglass and William Garrison who became partners in the fight for the abolition of slavery.
Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad
Focuses on the work of Harriet Tubman as an abolitionist and an advocate for women's rights, her escape from slavery, her work on the Underground Railroad, her role in the Civil War, and other related topics.
Slave Narratives and the Writings of Freedmen
Provides an introduction to slavery, discussing what life was like for slaves, and examines slave narratives written by slaves who escaped or bought their way to freedom.
Sojourner Truth: Speaking Up For Freedom
Presents a biography of African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist Sojourner Truth, who was regarded as one of the most persuasive speakers of her time, covering her birth into slavery, upbringing, attainment of freedom, and impact on other leaders.
Freedom Summer, 1964
Describes the events surrounding the Freedom Summer Project in 1964, when volunteers from northern states traveled to Mississippi to attempt to prove to local politicians that African Americans wanted voting rights and to encourage African Americans to make that desire known.
Books:
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation. Anderson.
Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.
Bud, Not Buddy. Curtis.
Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Chains. Anderson.
After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War.
Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Thriple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers. Stone.
Tells the story of America's first black paratroopers during World War II.
Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue. Lester.
Presents an historical fiction written in first-person format that follows Emma, the slave of Pierce Butler, through a series of events in her life as her master hosts the largest slave auction in American history in Savannah, Georgia in 1859 in order to pay off his mounting gambling debts
Flygirl. Smith.
During World War II, a light-skinned African American girl "passes" for white in order to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots.
Forge. Anderson.
Curzon, having matured from boy to man over the course of the winter with the army at Valley Forge, worries that someone will learn he is a runaway slave passing for free, and tries to figure out the meaning of his friendship with Isabel.
Freedom Walkers: The story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Freedman.
Presents the story of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and the major persons and events that contributed to the year-long struggle for equal rights on Montgomery's city buses.
Getting away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case. Crowe.
Presents a true account of the murder of fourteen-year-old, Emmett Till, in Mississippi, in 1955.
The Help. Stockett.
Skeeter returns home to Mississippi from college in 1962 and begins to write stories about the African-American women that are found working in white households, which includes Aibileen, who grieves for the loss of her son while caring for her seventeenth white child, and Minny, Aibileen's sassy friend, the hired cook for a secretive woman who is new to town
The Land. Taylor.
Paul-Edward, the son of a part-Indian, part-African slave mother and a White plantation owner father, finds himself caught between the two worlds of his parents as he pursues his dream of owning land in the aftermath of the Civil War.
The Lions of Little Rock. Levine.
Marlee develops a strong friendship with Liz, the new girl in school, but when Liz suddenly stops attending school and Marlee hears a rumor that her friend is actually an African American girl passing herself off as white, the two young girls must decide whether their friendship is worth taking on integration and the dangers it could bring to their families.
Mississippi Bridge. Taylor.
During a heavy rainstorm in 1930s rural Mississippi, white boy sees a bus driver order all the black passengers off a crowded bus to make room for late-arriving white passengers and then set off across the raging Rosa Lee River.
Mississippi Trial, 1955. Crowe.
In Mississippi in 1955, a teen finds himself at odds with his grandfather over issues surrounding the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till, an African-American from Chicago.
New Boy. Houston.
As a new sophomore at an exclusive boarding school in the 1950s, Rob Garrett, a young black man, is witness to the persecution of other students and wonders about the growing civil rights movement back home in Virginia.
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights. Sheinkin.
Describes the fifty black sailors who refused to work in unsafe and unfair conditions after an explosion in Port Chicago killed 320 servicemen, and how the incident influenced civil rights.
The Road to Memphis. Taylor.
Sadistically teased by two white boys in 1940's rural Mississippi, a black youth severely injures one of the boys with a tire iron and enlists Cassie's help in trying to flee the state.
The Rock and the River. Magoon.
In 1968 Chicago, Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African-Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Taylor.
An African-American family living in the South during the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children don't understand.
Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till. Wright.
Simeon Wright, the cousin of Emmett Till, an African-American teen who was beaten and killed in 1955 for whistling at a white woman reveals details about the night Emmett was kidnapped, and reflects on how the crime and trial affected his family and the community.
Stella by Starlight. Draper.
When a burning cross set by the Klan causes panic and fear in 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, Stella must face prejudice and find the strength to demand change in her segregated town.
A Summer of Kings. Nolan.
Over the course of the summer of 1963, Esther Young discovers the passion within her when King-Roy Johnson, accused of murdering a white man in Alabama, comes to live with her family.
A Thousand Never Evers. Burg.
As the civil rights movement in the South gains momentum in 1963 and violence against African-Americans intensifies, residents of the small town of Kuckachoo, Mississippi, including Addie Ann Pickett, begin their own courageous struggle for racial justice.
To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee.
"Scout" Finch tells of life in a small Alabama town where her father is a lawyer.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963. Curtis.
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Witness. Hesse.
A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.
Yankee Girl.** Rodman.
When her FBI-agent father is transferred to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1964, Alice wants to be popular but also wants to reach out to the one black girl in her class in a newly-integrated school.